Sales Director Protective Packaging

Reports to: Managing Director Europe

Location: Eindhoven, The Netherlands

Travel: Regular travel throughout Europe required

Team size: 5 direct reports; pan-European sales organization

For Pregis Europe, we are looking for an experienced commercial leader to take ownership of the newly created role of Sales Director Protective Packaging Europe.

Pregis is a private equity-backed organization with a clear ambition to double its European revenue by 2030. The successful candidate will play a pivotal role in accelerating growth, increasing market share and driving the next phase of commercial transformation across the European Protective Packaging organization.

As part of its next phase of growth, Pregis has redesigned its European commercial organization to create greater focus, stronger execution and increased accountability across its key business segments. This has resulted in a dedicated leadership structure, separating the Protective Packaging business from the Automated Mailing & Bagging (AM&B) and E-commerce activities.

The Sales Director Protective Packaging Europe will be fully responsible for the commercial performance and development of the Protective Packaging business across Europe, leading the country sales organizations and driving a more consistent and structured commercial approach across all markets. The role is part of the European Management Team and works closely alongside the Sales Director AM&B & E-commerce Europe, as well as peers across Operations, Finance, Supply Chain, HR and Engineering & Strategy.

The successful candidate will drive this transformation by enhancing accountability, creating greater alignment across markets and embedding a more structured and consistent approach to commercial execution across the European sales organization, while maintaining the entrepreneurial and hands-on culture that characterizes Pregis.

This is a high-impact role for an energetic and hands-on commercial leader who thrives in an international B2B environment and knows how to combine strategic thinking with execution, while creating energy, structure and accountability across a pan-European organization.

Key Responsibilities

• Define and implement the European sales strategy for the Protective Packaging business.
• Drive the commercial transformation of the European Protective Packaging organization.
• Lead, coach and develop a pan-European sales organization, fostering a high-performance and accountable culture.
• Drive profitable growth and increase market share across multiple European markets.
• Strengthen commercial execution through clear KPI management, forecasting, and performance follow-up.
• Establish more structured and consistent ways of working across countries and sales teams.
• Drive consultative selling capabilities and customer-centric commercial approaches.
• Optimize the balance between direct customers and channel/distribution partners to improve commercial effectiveness and margins.
• Act as a visible change leader, bringing energy, focus and accountability across the organization.
• Use data and commercial insights to identify opportunities and support decision-making.
• Collaborate closely with European leadership to further professionalize the commercial organization.

Candidate Profile

• Proven experience as a Sales Director, Commercial Director or Business Leader within an international B2B environment.
• Demonstrated success in delivering profitable growth and increasing market share across multiple countries.
• Experience operating in a growth-oriented or highly ambitious commercial environment.
• Experience gained within manufacturing, industrial, or technical product environments is strongly preferred.
• Strong experience with both direct sales and channel/distribution sales models, including optimizing these models to improve commercial effectiveness, market coverage, and profitability.
• Experience leading and developing remote international sales teams across Europe.
• Proven success in consultative and solution-based selling within complex B2B environments.
• Experience implementing commercial processes, KPI frameworks, and forecasting disciplines.
• Analytical and data-driven, with the ability to translate strategy into execution.
• Familiarity with the German/DACH market is considered a strong advantage.
• Comfortable operating within an international matrix organization.
• Excellent stakeholder management and communication skills.
• Willing and able to be present in Eindhoven on a regular basis (typically 1–2 days per week).
• Willing and able to travel regularly throughout Europe.
• Fluent in English; German is an advantage.

Personality & Leadership Style

• Inspiring and engaging leader who creates energy, urgency and momentum across teams.
• Strong people leader with a proven ability to coach, develop and inspire international teams.
• Highly driven and results-oriented, with a strong focus on execution and performance.
• Strong change agent who successfully leads commercial transformation and delivers sustainable results.
• Entrepreneurial, hands-on and willing to roll up their sleeves when required.
• Creates a culture of ownership, accountability and continuous improvement.
• Commercially driven with a strong analytical mindset.
• Collaborative and able to build alignment across cultures, countries and teams.
• Comfortable operating in a dynamic, non-corporate and growth-oriented environment.